


Secrets

by KatieComma



Series: Those Who Favour Fire [1]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, Pre-Relationship, ice powered!Mac, mutant AU, not actually X-men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 12:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17981717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieComma/pseuds/KatieComma
Summary: Mac has been keeping a secret his whole life. Because people look at those with "powers" differently, like they're not people at all. So Mac keeps it to himself.But then he gets the opportunity to work with someone like him.And he seizes the chance.The moment he meets Riley Davis there's a spark between them, and Mac knows he's made the right choice in trusting her.





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidnightBlueMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightBlueMoon/gifts).



> Based on an AMAZING MOODBOARD made by the ever so talented MidnightBlueMoon, @mac-in-cairo on Tumblr!!!
> 
> Thank you for brainstorming this whole idea with my friend!!!! It's turning out SO GREAT! I can't wait to add more ficlets to this AU!!!
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for beta reading lavendersblues!!!!! As always you are so appreciated!!! Your input is priceless!

Mac was nervous. Sitting in the front seat of the GTO he plied at a paperclip with his Swiss Army Knife. But the more and more his nerves crawled up from his stomach, and the more he twisted the little clip, the colder it grew between his fingers. 

When he was nervous, he couldn’t help it, the odd powers within him just surged and trickled out of him like a leaky ship's hull. 

And he was certainly nervous. One more twist and the cold metal clip between his fingers got just a little too cold, grew brittle, and snapped.

“Damnit!” Mac huffed, tossing the pieces to the floor. 

“Come on man,” Jack said from the driver’s seat, peeking at the mess of silver bits under Mac’s feet. “You must be nervous, there’s at least a dozen broken paperclips on the floor right now. The floor of _my_ car. And you’re definitely picking ‘em up before I drop you at home tonight.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Mac said quietly, gazing out the window. He pulled out another clip with barely a thought about what he was doing.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Jack mocked. “Come on man, why are you so nervous right now? I’m tellin’ you she’ll help us.”

“I’m not nervous about whether she’ll help us or not,” Mac said, looking back out the window so Jack couldn’t see his face. “I’m nervous about…”

“Dude,” there was serious warning in Jack’s voice. “If you tell her I told you, that’s it. We’re partin’ ways brother.”

“Really?” Mac asked, curious, looking back to his partner’s face.

Jack’s face fell. “No, not really man. Wookie life debts ain’t that easy to scrub,” he said. “But you can’t tell her I told you she’s got powers, ok? She never told anybody. And then she told me and…” Jack’s voice choked up.

Mac knew the story. Jack had told him desperately while they were serving in Afghanistan together when he’d thought they were going to die. Pinned down, gunfire peppering the building around them, surrounded. Mac’d had his back to a wall, no weapon to speak of; Jack was out of ammo, and scuttled up to sit with his back against the same wall.

“What’s your greatest regret Mac?” Jack had asked.

Mac had tried to joke it away, to hide his fear. “Getting stuck with this big ape of an overwatch,” he said smacking Jack’s shoulder.

Jack hadn’t even smiled. “I left someone behind,” he’d said, eyebrows drawn in anger and sorrow and regret in a way that Mac hadn’t seen them before. “Because I was afraid.” The whole story had come boiling out of Jack in that moment. Riley had looked up to him like a father, but once she’d admitted that she had powers and shown them to Jack, he’d turned tail and run away. Afraid of something different. Afraid to try and help and understand.

That was the moment that Mac had known he couldn’t trust Jack Dalton with his secret. Couldn’t trust that Jack would try to understand. Couldn’t trust that Jack would stay, if he knew what Mac could do with just a touch. If the little girl he’d loved like his own hadn’t been enough to keep him around, some war buddy sure wasn’t going to make the cut.

So Mac broke paperclips with his icy grip, while Jack sat two feet away and just thought that Mac was nervous and twisting too hard with his pliers. The number of times Mac’s powers had saved Jack, kept fire and explosion at bay, Jack would never know. Not if Mac could help it.

Jack not-so-subtly wiped his tears away in the driver’s seat, and restarted his last sentence. “And then she told me and I up and left, ok? So don’t you dare tell her that I told you.”

Mac nodded. “Yeah, ok.”

“Promise me, Mac!” Jack demanded. “Or am I gonna have to make you pinky swear again?”

“God, Jack! I promise, ok?” Mac said angrily, then turned back toward the window, watching the day fly by.

He’d never wanted to arrive at a prison so badly. But he wanted to tell Jack to floor it.

 

Mac leaned on the cold interrogation table and looked Riley Davis up and down. There was a defiance in her eyes; the way she raised her eyebrow and grinned just a little. Mac couldn’t help but wonder what power lay just underneath her skin, waiting to seep through.

If he was honest with himself, he didn’t care. All he knew was that they were the same. Cut from the same cloth. Different from the rest of the world. As much as Mac loved Jack, they’d never be the same. Jack could never and would never understand him. But maybe Mac and Riley could understand each other.

Each time Riley’s eyes flickered to Jack in the corner, her easy and carefree fiery demeanor dimmed a little and she just looked hurt.

Jack and Riley started bickering, over something stupid: did someone like coffee or not? Mac wasn’t listening. Instead he held up his hands. “Ok, you two are on time out!”

To Jack’s credit, he shut his mouth. A rarity.

Mac stood up and walked to the door, motioning for Jack to follow. In the hallway he leaned close to Jack.

“I can convince her to help us,” Mac said. “But I need you to wait out here.”

“What? No, I can’t let you-”

“Jack,” Mac smiled, “I can do this. Let me do this. What I can’t do is convince her to come with his while you’re in that room staring her down.”

Jack looked down. “Yeah, well, maybe that does make some sense.”

“What I need from you,” Mac continued, “is to get me time in there without us being recorded.”

“Oh come on Mac what do you have to say that can’t be… no! You promised!”

“It’s not about that,” Mac lied. And he hated it so much. Lying to Jack was one of those things he never did unless he had to. And each time it hurt like being physically cut. “I just don’t want this to go on the record if you catch my drift.”

Jack sighed, but he trusted Mac with his life, so he gave in. “Alright, alright. Give me five minutes.”

“Three,” Mac said, “we don’t have a lot of time and I wanna get out of here.” 

“You got it hoss,” Jack huffed, glancing back to the interrogation room door. Obviously he wanted to be a part of whatever was about to happen, but he trusted Mac. That trust stung when Mac thought about what he was keeping from Jack. But it couldn’t be helped.

Mac sighed and retreated back into the room, where Riley waited patiently.

Mac sat back down at the table, the door clicking closed behind him. “So, Ms Davis, now that it’s a little quieter in here…”

“You’ve got that right,” she shot back, “Jack could never keep his mouth shut. Especially when he’s nervous. And I know I make him nervous.”

“Oh yeah?” Mac asked. “Why’s that?”

Riley stared him down, probably wondering exactly what Jack had told him. Mac stared right back, fully aware of just how intimidating his icy blue eyes could be. There was something between them, he could feel it. Some kind of connection. So many things about it felt right, it was like coming home and knowing his place in the world for once.

And then she blinked her dark eyes, and the spell was broken. But the spark still lingered there ready to reignite any second.

“Cause he’s ashamed of what he did,” she answered, “but if he didn’t tell you, then I’m not going to be the one to break it to you.” She turned toward the two way glass. “I don’t give away other people’s secrets!” She yelled.

“Yeah,” Mac glanced at the glass and back at Riley, “the recorder is off. Nobody can hear us now. It’s just you and me.”

“Is that a threat Mr. MacGyver?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I don’t make threats Ms. Davis,” he answered, trying to remain intimidating without being scary. “What I can tell you is that we’re not so very different you and me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She asked, leaning back as far as her hands, chained to the table, would allow. “From what I can tell, we’re complete opposites.”

“Not at the core,” Mac said seriously, leaning even further forward, hoping that she could see in his eyes what he meant. Even though Jack had promised to keep them from being recorded, Mac still wanted to be careful. “We aren’t like everyone else at the core. But we’re like each other. Driven by the same things.”

Riley’s face changed in an instant and washed away the hard-ass prison mask she’d put on for them. For everyone. She understood exactly what he meant. There was awe and eagerness in her eyes.

“You can help us change things,” Mac said. He grabbed her hands and began to pick away at the locks with his paperclip. He didn’t even need to look. “Help us make a difference.” Her skin was so warm, almost feverish. But Mac was nervous, it was probably just that his hands were cold, that raw power coming to the surface like it did so often when he didn’t want it to.

When he pulled his hands back, her shackles fell away. He missed the touch of her warm skin immediately.

“What do you say?”

“I’m in,” she breathed, before he’d even finished the last word. “Yeah, I’m definitely in.” She didn’t stop staring into his eyes until he unshackled her feet and turned to the door.

**Author's Note:**

> This series title is inspired by the Robert Frost Poem Fire and Ice:
> 
> Some say the world will end in fire,  
> Some say in ice.  
> From what I’ve tasted of desire  
> I hold with those who favor fire.  
> But if it had to perish twice,  
> I think I know enough of hate  
> To know that for destruction ice  
> Is also great  
> And would suffice.


End file.
